[325] - Fatigue and Burnout Will Not Wait For The Next Budget Allocation

We make a direct call to leaders of 24/7 teams to stop relying on recruitment and start building real support that reduces fatigue and burnout. Practical education, risk-aware supervision, and retention-first strategy create safer, more stable workplaces.

• Why recruitment cannot fix fatigue and burnout
• The compounding loop from errors to understaffing
• Evidence-based education on sleep, circadian rhythm, nutrition, recovery
• What genuine support looks like beyond posters and EAP emails
• Retention as a core safety strategy
• Leadership duties, difficult conversations, and early intervention
• The gap between advertising and the lived job
• How to assess whether staff feel supported
• Immediate steps to stabilise a 24/7 workforce

Let’s have a conversation. Follow the link in the show notes to the Seminar Experience, download the e‑brochure, and book a call.

Subscribe for new episodes and leave a rating and review on your podcast app. Visit ahealthyshift.com to learn more or work with me

Chapters

• 4:52 A Wake-Up Call For Leaders
• 5:45 Recruitment Won’t Solve Burnout
• 6:36 The Real Problem: Lack Of Support
• 8:50 Why Retention Is A Safety Issue
• 10:14 What Genuine Support Looks Like
• 11:07 The Costly Fatigue-Burnout Loop
• 12:45 “This Is Not What They Signed Up For”
• 13:36 Do Your People Feel Supported
• 15:11 No Budget Is Not An Excuse

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 3:17

Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer, and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. And welcome back to another episode of a healthy shift podcast. If you're a leader or a manager, strap in because I'm coming after you with this podcast to really highlight a massive issue in your workplace. And that is fatigue and burnout will not wait for your next budget allocation. If you run a 24-7 workplace, this actually matters. Because fatigue and burnout absolutely do not care about your budget cycle. They don't wait for the next financial year. And they will not pause while you try and recruit your way out of trouble here. They're not going to. Right now, frontline health and emergency services are losing staff at an alarming rate. They are hemorrhaging. And people aren't just leaving jobs, they're actually leaving careers. And the hard truth is this you cannot recruit your way out of fatigue and burnout because you're putting people back into the same environment every single time. You've got to start valuing the people that you have. The real problem, I've worked shift work for over 40 years, and I now coach shift workers every single day. And I've coached hundreds over the last six years. And what I'm seeing is not a lack of resilience, it's actually the lack of support that actually works, is the problem. Majority of shift workers that I talk to in frontline health and emergency services, when I ask them, what do you think the biggest problem is? The response is lack of support. Now let that sink in. If you're a manager or a leader, let that sink in. Your employees are actually saying that you're not supporting them. And I know you're going to sit there and say, oh yeah, we are, because we put a flyer up on the Ochealth and Safety wall. You are kidding yourself, aren't you? Have a look at what you're doing. Have a look at the social media posts on what how you're portraying to advertise to staff. The people that you're getting are not the people that are career. They're not going to last. What you're doing is ticking a box. What we need to do is we need to start looking after the people that we actually have already. Long hours, broken sleep, chronic fatigue, emotional exhaustion. And the more that leave, the more pressure you're actually putting on the people that are left. And it's getting to breaking point. Your staff are running on empty. I'm here to tell you. I know you think you know this, but they're not telling you everything. But I'm hearing it. And then look at you, acting all surprised when they take unplanned leave or when they make a mistake and then you go after them. Or they just walk away. Replacing them costs you time and money. And I know as a supervisor or a manager in a workplace, you can wait for recruiting to fix that problem for you, but they can't. Because they just bring another problem to you. It's someone else to train, it's somebody else that you've got to bring up to speed. And it's another person that you're going to lose. Looking after the staff that you already have, retention is no longer a nice idea. It's actually a safety issue in your workplace. If you want your people to stay, they need to feel supported in real ways. Not with their slogans, not with your once-a-year well-being week, not with flyers up on the wall. Education matters. Because when staff understand sleep and fatigue and they learn about the circadian rhythm, and they learn about nutrition and recovery and their mental health, things start to change.

SPEAKER_00: 7:57

They actually start to feel more in control.

SPEAKER_01: 8:00

Their energy improves, their mindset shifts. That's how you protect mind and spirit. Not by asking people to just cope better. You can't tell people today, oh, this is how it's always been, because this is not how it's always been. You can't say to people, this is what you signed up for, because this is not what they signed up for.

SPEAKER_00: 8:24

That's not what you portrayed or what you advertised. It's totally different. So, what does support really look like? Let me be blunt.

SPEAKER_01: 8:36

Putting a flyer on the health and well-being board is not support. It's just literally ticking your health and well-being box. An email from your EAP. That's not a fatigue strategy. A poster about resilience is not going to fix your chronic sleep debt. Support means ongoing education. It means practical tools that people can actually use both on and off shift. It means that leadership is understanding the fatigue risk and they're not just talking about it after an incident. And yes, be aware there is a legislative requirement in 24-7 workplaces to actually address health and safety and well-being. In fact, in all workplaces, but yours has one too. And fatigue is actually part of that. And mental health is actually part of that. So the real question I'm going to ask you was you sit there listening to this or walking or driving, what are you actually doing? What are you doing? And why can't this wait? Because fatigue is leading to errors. Errors lead to incidents and accidents. Incidents lead to complaints and injuries and investigations. And so it compounds the problem even further. Burnout, it leads to sick leave. And sick leave leads to understaffing. And understaffing, it just increases fatigue further. And it's a loop, and it's getting tighter and tighter. It's going to strangle you. And if you don't intervene early, the cost will actually grow.

SPEAKER_00: 10:19

Financially, operationally, and humanly. If this is not addressed, you're going to have massive problems.

SPEAKER_01: 10:30

And you've got to know where to go to get it addressed. You've got to do something. You can't just say, oh, it'll sort itself out. Because if you're a leader or a manager, you have to sort it out. That's your job. That's what you're getting paid to do. So who's getting on the front foot and actually going to do something about it? You already know it isn't sustainable. You know that. You've identified that. You're the one that's trying to put all the fingers in the dike everywhere to stop the leaks. How many more fingers have you got? How much more can you actually do? Because the problem is real now. It's getting catastrophic with the amount of people that are actually leaving. Seeing figures of police forces around Australia is devastating. Seeing how bad it's actually got. And the people that I'm communicating that are left are under such enormous pressure, they've almost had enough. And what are you doing about it? Oh, this is how it's always been. No, it's not. This is what you signed up for. No, it isn't. That is not. And advertising with TikTok type social media advertising for people is not portraying what the job is actually like.

SPEAKER_00: 11:43

And the longevity?

SPEAKER_01: 11:45

When I signed up for the police, we were going to be 20, 30 year members, 20, 30 year officers. Now they sign up, they're gone in two to three years because it's just not what they thought it was going to be, and they don't feel supported. And I would ask you the question do a 360 on your staff and ask them if they feel supported. And brace yourself for the answer. Because you will find majority of your staff don't feel supported. Yes, there's some great managers out there, there's some good people, but recently I've had a number of applications that have gone in, a number of proposals that have gone into 24-7 workplaces, and the responses come back is there's no money. No money? So you're not valuing your staff in the fatigue and burnout because what are you actually doing to support them? And that's something that you need to come to terms with and you need to think about it because I'm going to be very clear. Fatigue and burnout are not going to wait for the next budget allocation. Because when you get there, there isn't any more money. And then you get to the stage where there's no more staff. Or the staff that are left are broken. And they're on unplanned leave and they're on extended leave. Or they've simply just walked away. So if you don't intervene and do something now, you're gonna have a massive problem. You've already got a problem, you know that. Be real with yourself, but we need to do something. You don't need another report to tell you that it's not sustainable. You can't put another report up the line and say, when's our staff coming? Because they're not. And you can't have a staff member make a mistake because they're chronically fatigued and they're emotionally fragile and then just put them on paper and get rid of them that way, or make them feel even worse for what they've done. You've got to start looking after them. You've got to have those difficult conversations. If you're a leader or you're a manager, have the difficult conversations, but not put them on paper. I think we reach for our pens or our typewriters far too quick. Typewriters, keyboard. Let's go with keyboard, Rog. You're a bit old. All right. That's all I've got to say on this one today. It's a really short one, but it's a really important episode. And it's something that you've got to do. And I can help you with this. Let's have a conversation. If you're a manager and you are absolutely at breaking point, or if you are running an organization, or if you're a health and well-being manager, what have you got to lose by having a conversation with me and saying, what can we do? Because I have lived experience. I have 40 years of shift work. I'm a certified nutritionist. I've coached hundreds and hundreds of people over the last seven, six, six and a half years, nearly seven years now. And I've got a handle on it. I can speak the language. They will be, it's relatable. I have the feedback from it. And if you want to know more, in the show notes, go to the bottom and you'll see there's a link there to the seminar experience. And you can click there, it'll take you to the webpage, and I will and you can see everything that I offer. And you can download my seminar experience e-brochure. And in that brochure, it shows you what I do and how I go about it. And I've actually got a really exciting new platform launching in the coming weeks, which is going to take 2026 into the next level for education for shift working environments, which is really exciting. And I'm really keen to share it with people. If you want to learn more about it, follow the links in the show notes to the seminar experience and book a call and let's have a conversation or let's sit down at the table and bash it out because it's got to be bashed out. Something's got to be done.

SPEAKER_00: 15:44

You can't keep going the way that you're going. So if you're responsible for a 24-7 workforce, let's talk.

SPEAKER_01: 15:54

Not a sales pitch, a real conversation. And I will show you how I support shift workers to get healthier in their body, mind, and spirit and how that support flows back into a safer and a much more stable workplace. Reach out because fatigue and burnout will not wait for the next budget allocation. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.